The much-debated movie ‘Signs’ (see our coverage in last autumn’s archives), starring Mel Gibson, crop circles and some rather dodgy aliens, has now been released for home access. Meanwhile, ‘A Place To Stay’ gets another one-off showing…

Well, for those who loved it so much that they need to go through it again, or missed it first time around and want to see what the fuss was all about, here’s your chance to partake of the ‘Signs’ experience. The film has now been released on video and DVD in the US and UK.

There’s little point going over the same old stuff covered in our previous reviews, suffice to say that the crop circles are not the main focus of the movie, that of course they’re misrepresented (what did people expect?) - and that the film gave more publicity to the phenomenon than any number of Discovery Channel documentaries could ever hope to achieve. For the massive opportunity to fill people in on the real thing, and the fact that it could have been a whole lot worse, croppies ought to be thankful.

The DVD edition includes the usual ‘making of’ documentary, deleted scenes and other bits and bobs, but not, at first glance, the ‘real crop circles’ feature some had hoped for. For that, people will have to seek out the video of ‘Crop Circles: Quest For Truth’ and the myriad of other video documentaries released recently, some of which we will round-up in a future feature.

Incidentally, for those wondering what happened to the UK fictional crop circle production ‘A Place To Stay’, there would appear to be little sign of it ever getting distribution. However, another one-off showing has been arranged by the Wiltshire Crop Circle Study Group for Tuesday 20 May at Devizes Cinema, Wiltshire. The performance begins at 8.30pm. Cinema capacity is only 250, though. Tickets are £4.50.

As for ‘Signs’, though the film is largely dark and serious, ‘Survival Guide’ publicity cards distributed around shops to promote the UK retail release revolve around tongue-in-cheek jokey descriptions of how to make the tinfoil alien-protection hats featured in the film, with the tagline “With the exponential growth in the number of crop signs, many fear that an alien attack is imminent.” Hmmm…

Hang on, what’s that buzzing coming from my PC speakers, and what are those scuffling sounds from behind the door..?